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Beyond Animal Research

By Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D. February 2005

Animals Still Used in Motion Sickness Experiments

If you’ve ever suffered motion sickness, you know that it’s a miserable feeling. Other animals are also vulnerable, and for at least 50 years scientists have been subjecting monkeys, dogs, cats, rats and other species to experiments designed to make them ill. Here are some recent examples:

At the University of Texas, female dogs had electric charges delivered directly to their small intestines via implanted electrodes. Depending on patterns of charges and drugs, dogs suffered different degrees of vomiting and other motion sickness-like symptoms.1

At the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, rats were rotated 1,350 times over 45 minutes to observe the effects of various anti-emetic drugs on vomiting rates.2

Experimenters at the University of Tokyo induced vomiting in house musk shrews by injecting vasopressin either into the blood stream or into the brain.3

Scientists at Shimane University in Japan force-fed tree-frogs, then subjected them to “parabolic flight.” Motion sickness was measured as the presence of vomitus in a frog’s cage.4

One can only wonder what utility these inhumane studies could possibly have. Motion sickness is a subjective experience, and animals cannot report it to us. The only clear objective measure is vomiting.

There are many ways to study motion sickness ethically, with human volunteers. Here is a recent sample:

At the University of Southampton, 20 human subjects rated motion sickness during a 30-minute car journey under conditions of artificially restricted view, restricted view due to seating position, and a video view of the road ahead. Car motions were also measured in three axes.5

At the University of Arkansas, adults sat in a rotary chair to simulate space motion sickness to assess the effectiveness of four anti-nausea drugs with pre- or post-treatment.6

University of Southampton researchers exposed 120 adults for up to 30 minutes to sinusoidal lateral oscillation to study the role of oscillation frequencies on motion sickness. Subjects provided ratings of motion sickness at one-minute intervals.7

At Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, motion sickness was studied in 30 adults placed on a rotating platform with a head-mounted display that could produce conflicting self-motion cues.8

Studying motion sickness in humans avoids tenuous extrapolations between species, and subjects can verbally express their symptoms often and in great detail. Unlike animal subjects, people volunteer to participate, and they may terminate exposure at any point. But as we’ve seen before, decisions to fund, conduct, review, and publish research don’t always follow a rational path.

Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D., is a PCRM research consultant with background in ethology. He is the author of The Use of Animals in Higher Education, as well as many articles on humane life science education and scientific papers on animal behavior.He is the author of a recent scientific review showing that animal experiments are more stressful than previously understood.